Home Office

Health Services: Police Custody

Lord Adebowale: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in transferring healthcare in police custody to the NHS from April 2015; why that transfer has been delayed; what plans they have to ensure that work done by the police and NHS England to date is not lost; and how they will ensure that the same level of physical and mental healthcare is available to those in custody as to those not in custody.

Lord Bates: My rt honFriend the Home Secretary has decided that a reallocation from the overall police settlement in respect of custody healthcare costs would not be appropriate at this time. Funding responsibility for police custody healthcare services will therefore remain with Police and Crime Commissioners who will have flexibility to prioritise resource towards police custody healthcare, based on local needs. We expect that in doing so, they will wish to continue to develop the close partnerships which have already been established with local NHS England commissioners as part of the work on police custody healthcare arrangements in ensuring the most appropriate local commissioning, and healthcare arrangements.We will continue to support such partnerships to build upon the work done to date and, particularly, to work with them to explore the scope for new models for better integrating the commissioning of the range of physical and mental health initiatives and interventions available.

Health Services: Police Custody

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff: To ask Her Majesty’s Government when and by which ministerial department the decision was taken to cancel the transfer of police custody healthcare servicesto the NHS;when that decision was announced; and what were the reasons for that change of policy.

Lord Bates: My rt hon Friend the Home Secretary has decided that a reallocation from the overall police settlement in respect of custody healthcare costs would not be appropriate at this time. This decision was communicated to Police and Crime Commissioners on 17 December 2015 in correspondence on the provisional police funding settlement. Police and Crime Commissioners will therefore retain responsibility for commissioning such services, and have flexibility to prioritise resource towards police custody healthcare, based on local needs.In most areas police forces and NHS Commissioners have already developed close effective partnerships in respect of custody healthcare provision and we expect that they will continue to build on these.

Marriage: Children

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to collect data on the number of underage girls who marry overseas and subsequently return to the UK.

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many cases the Forced Marriage Unit provided advice or support in (1) 2014, and (2) 2015.

Lord Bates: The UK is a world-leader in the fight to stamp out the brutal practice of forced marriage, with our Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) leading efforts to combat it both at home and abroad.In 2014, the FMU gave advice or support related to a possible forced marriage in 1,267 cases. Of those cases, 11% involved victims below 16 years (where the age was known), and 77% involved an overseas element (meaning the victim was at risk of, or had been taken, overseas). To provide a further breakdown of this information would incur a disproportionate cost.FMU data is published on an annual basis, and figures for 2015 are due for publication shortly.

Police: Ethnic Groups

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to increase diversity in police forces, in particular to close the gap between the percentage of applicants and percentage of appointments from black and minority ethnic groups.

Lord Bates: It is vital that the police reflect the communities they serve and I am determined to improve BME representation in all 43 forces in England and Wales.Decisions on when and how to recruit individuals are for the chief officer of a police force. It is important that they use equalities legislation, including positive action provisions, to make better progress in terms of recruitment of under-represented groups.The Government's reforms have already made improvements, for example we set up the College of Policing which has embarked on a major programme of work, BME Progression 2018, looking at recruitment, retention and progression of black and minority ethnic officers, including the development of an evidence base of successful approaches used by forces.As part of this programme the College recently published Positive Action Practical Advice, which advises forces on the use of lawful positive action to support the recruitment, retention and progression of officers from under-represented groups, and it has published case studies from forces showing what can be done.The College of Policing is currently undertaking a review of initial police recruitment, including the SEARCH assessment centre for police recruits, to better understand disproportionality that can occur between white candidates and those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. The review is due to report by the 31 March 2016.Under this Government, innovative schemes such as Direct Entry and Police Now are increasing the number of BME recruits to the police, showing that you can achieve better representation while attracting the best and the brightest into policing.Of the nine direct entry superintendents who began their superintendent training on November 2014 four (44%) are women and two (22%) are from an ethnic minority background. This is significantly more representative than the current make up of the superintendent rank which comprises 17% women and 4% ethnic minority.Police Now, introduced in the Metropolitan Police, has appointed 69 people to start their training, up from an anticipated 50 owing to the high calibre of applicants. Of these, 43% are women and 9% are from a BME background, compared to the national BME proportion of 5.5%.With the joint leadership of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the Commissioner, the Metropolitan Police also introduced its London residency criteria for recruits in August 2014. Recent Metropolitan police figures show that in the three months from June to August 2015, 26% of new Metropolitan police recruits came from a black or minority background, more than double the 12% recruited in the same quarter of 2014, and the 12% of Metropolitan police officers currently from a black and minority ethnic background.

Islam

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 11 January (HL4752 and HL4753), whether they regard the preaching and teaching of Wahhabism in mosques and Muslim education bodies in Britain, and its funding from overseas, as creating a risk of extremism threatening national security.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: As noted in the recent National Security Strategy, extremism divides communities and weakens the social fabric of our country, and extremist ideas are often used to try to justify terrorism.Anyone promoting the use of violence to promote any ideology, or using any ideology to incite violence and terrorism will have the full force of our laws brought against them. Countering extremist ideologies that create division in our country is the fundamental aim behind the new Counter Extremism Strategy.

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Oil: Exploration

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what pre-application due diligence checks are made on companies which apply for petroleum exploration licences, or are associated with such applications, before those applications are accepted or granted; what checks are made on the previous records of the companies in the UK and other countries as part of such due diligence; and what criteria are applied in decisions about whether a company is accepted as suitable to bid for such licences.

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many companies applied for petroleum exploration licences in the recent round; how many of those did not succeed; and of those, how many were rejected as a result of due diligence checks.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: In the most recent (14th) Landward Licensing Round all applicants were required to demonstrate their financial viability and the financial capacity to carry out their respective proposed Work Programmes, and that they met residence requirements. The proposed operator in each case was also required to demonstrate the organisational capability and technical and environmental competence to operate to the necessary standards. Consideration was also given to each proposed operator’s past record (in the UK and elsewhere) of compliance with environmental legislative standards or requirements, any criminal or civil action taken against them for environmental reasons, convictions for breaches of environmental legislation and pending criminal or civil action for environmental breaches. Detailed guidance explaining requirements for applicants can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oil-and-gas-licensing-roundsIn the 14th Round, applications were invited on 28 July 2014, to be submitted by 28 October 2014. 95 applications from 71 companies were received. The Oil and Gas Authority has now offered 92 new licences and the extension of one existing licence to groups that included 43 companies. Of the companies to whom no offer was made, 12 had failed to satisfy the necessary financial criteria and five proposed operators had failed to demonstrate the necessary level of environmental awareness.

Cabinet Office

Honours

Lord Lexden: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to prevent future Honours Lists being prematurely disclosed.

Lord Bridges of Headley: The Cabinet Office will continue to reiterate clear instructions for handling embargoed material.

Charities: Freedom of Information

Lord Lingfield: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the review of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, charities not in receipt of grants from public funds will be subject to freedom of information requests.

Lord Lingfield: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the review of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, charities with a turnover of less than £250,000 per annum will be subject to freedom of information requests.

Lord Lingfield: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the review of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, charities in receipt of less than £25,000 per annum in grants from public funds will be subject to freedom of information requests.

Lord Bridges of Headley: The Government will announce its intentions about the development of the Freedom of Information Act once it has received and considered the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information’s recommendations.



Annex
(PDF Document, 137.39 KB)

Government Departments: Historic Buildings

Lord Wallace of Saltaire: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proposed economic rent charges will be applied to historic government buildings in Whitehall; and if so, on what basis the economic rent for buildings of historic significance will be calculated.

Lord Bridges of Headley: The Government Property Unit is working with departments to agree a detailed timeline for the transfer of assets and on the detail of implementation, including the finance and charging regime.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Apprentices: Taxation

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the likely impact of the apprenticeship levy on wage growth over the next five years.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The OBR forecasts that wages will grow over the next few years, though at a slightly lower rate than would have been the case had the apprenticeship levy not been introduced.However, we know that apprenticeships have long-run productivity and wage benefits for apprentices and the wider economy, which are not included in the OBR’s modelling. On average, an apprenticeship increases an individual’s earnings by 11-16% within three to five years.[1]The medium-term benefits of apprenticeships can therefore outweigh short-term wage pressures. We thus consider the net impact of the apprenticeships levy on the economy to be positive.[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-measuring-the-net-present-value-in-england



Value of FE in England
(PDF Document, 314.58 KB)

Universities: Northern Ireland

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are responsible for any aspects of the finance and operation of the two universities in Northern Ireland, and if not, who is.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: Higher Education policy is devolved. The Department for Employment and Learning of the Northern Ireland Executive is the department responsible for Higher Education Institutions in Northern Ireland. This includes responsibility for providing funding to their HEIs for teaching and for recurrent research (also known as Quality Related research funding). In addition, the UK Government provides funding through the Department for Business Innovation and Skills’ Science & Research Budget for Research Councils, which are reserved bodies, and to the National Academies. The Research Councils provide funding for specific projects and programmes of research on a competitive basis open to universities across the United Kingdom, including those in Northern Ireland. Similarly, academics from universities across the UK can bid for funding from the National Academies.